Ubuntucat

The new release of Ubuntu Linux, which is 9.04, nicknamed Jaunty Jackalope came out today officially.

I am slowly working on updating my tutorials to reflect any changes. Please be patient. It may take me a few weeks to catch up. I don’t think there are too many major changes from 8.10 or 8.04, though. I want to double-check, though, so give me time.

Thanks for your patience!

As far as I can tell, jackalopes aren’t even real animals. I still remember the first time I got a jackalope postcard over ten years ago. Well, the Ubuntu folks have decided to name the next Ubuntu Linux release Jaunty Jackalope. I’ve used every single Ubuntu release since its second one (Hoary Hedgehog). That would be 5.04, 5.10, 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, 7.10, 8.04, and 8.10. Eight releases. And I can honestly say that Ubuntu 9.04 is the smoothest, most polished release I have ever seen from Ubuntu.

I installed Ubuntu 9.04 beta (yes, it is beta, so it not guaranteed to be bug-free) on my Eee PC 701 (which, only a year after I’ve purchased it, already feels like a netbook dinosaur), and I have only one complaint (which I’ve filed a bug report on).

At first glance, it looks pretty much like any of the recent releases, but some nice little touches are in there:

• Boot up time and general responsiveness are significantly increased, even with still the Ext3 filesystem (I don’t want to risk Ext4 at this point).
• When the package manager is interrupted, you’re told to use the command sudo dpkg –configure -a to fix it (instead of the incorrect previously given command dpkg –configure -a
• Hotkeys, sound, touchpad tapping, and wireless all work out of the box with the Eee PC. No tweaking or special kernels necessary.
• Time zone selection during installation actually is by time zone and not by city.
• More themes are included.

I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, but it just feels good. I wanted to file as many bugs as I could before final release. I could find only one bug to file so far, though.

Good job, Ubuntu folks!

Just spotted this “article” on ZDNet called Ubuntu allies with Amazon and Dell. It opens

The next Ubuntu release, dubbed Karmic Koala (k is the 10th letter of the alphabet and this is officially release 9.10) is drawing attention for its support for clouds and its improved desktop.

[Emphasis added]

And apparently

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983.

Uh, the letter k being the 10th letter of the alphabet has nothing to do with the release number. Ubuntu 9.10 means it’s the version of Ubuntu released in October (10th month of the year) 2009. Ubuntu 9.04 will be released in April of 2009. Ubuntu 8.10 was released in October 2008. And so on.

Some things don’t change, I guess. Further reading:
Linux – stop holding kids back… so wrong
Enough with the sensationalist Linux headlines
Bad Journalism

One of the popular criticisms of Linux users is that Linux users can’t take criticism well. This criticism happens to be true. And I happen to have, at one point, been one of those Linux users who could not take criticism well.

Why can’t Linux users take criticism well? Why couldn’t I before? Does using Linux do something to your brain? Does it cause you to have kneejerk reactions?

Well, I think it does at first. I can speak only for myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other Linux users had this happen to them, too. When I first “converted” to Linux from Windows, that’s exactly how I thought of myself—as a convert. I felt as if I’d seen the light. For decades, I’d been enslaved by Microsoft and now had finally seen the light in Linux. Praise Jesus! I wanted to share the “good news” with other Windows users. I wanted to tell them what they were missing. I was so enthusiastic for Linux that I couldn’t understand how anyone could level criticisms against it.

It was more than that, of course. Even after my new-convert zeal died down, I didn’t take criticism well because I knew many of the criticisms were not valid or constructive ones. If 95% of the criticisms people throw at you aren’t valid, it can be difficult to figure out which 5% are valid and give people credit for that little bit. In other words, you get in a defensive mode, the same way a dog who is used to being beaten will shy away from even an intended-to-be-loving touch.

Once the zeal went away and once the defensiveness cooled down, I started trying to deflect criticism into pragmatism. After all, what does it matter if I—a Linux user, not a Linux developer—hear your criticisms? How would I know how to fix things any more than you would?

A little bit of this I have retained, and I still will refer complainers to Brainstorm and Launchpad.

But I’ve stopped toeing the party line. It’s taken me three and a half years of Linux use to do so, but I’ve stopped. Yes, there are many things that are the fault of third-party vendors. Yes, there are many things that are out of the control of Linux developers. In the end, though, Linux developers are human—just like you and me. They make mistakes. That’s why some thing that used to work in an older release no longer works in the current release. That’s why that update broke your X server. That’s why that security vulnerability snuck in and took a while to get patched.

Linux isn’t perfect, not even for what is within the control of the Linux developers. And not all Linux developers are volunteers. Many are, and I appreciate their generosity of time and energy. But many are also paid. But they’re human, folks. They make mistakes. Is it okay for you to criticize? Sure. Criticize away.

I’ve had my fair share of problems with Linux. I’ve been a Ubuntu user for over three years, and I saw Ubuntu storing passwords in plain text (that has since been fixed). I’ve had all kinds of problems getting drives mounted and unmounted properly, and I’ve filed bug reports. Sometimes I get annoyed that they won’t fix bugs in the current release unless they’re security-related. That’s okay.

In the end, I don’t believe in conversion. I believe in using what works for you. If you believe Windows has fewer problems, then use Windows. If you believe Mac has fewer problems, use OS X. If you believe Linux has more problems than Windows and Mac but you just want to torture yourself, use Linux.

I happen to have experience with all three major platforms and have found problems with all three. I could level criticisms at all three. In the end, I choose Linux because I like it, warts and all. If you want to offer your criticisms, I won’t pretend I haven’t heard them all before, but I also won’t call you a troll or tell you that nothing is the fault of Linux developers. Use what works for you, and do your best to improve it with whatever’s within your power to do so.

Every now and then I try out Debian because of its reputation of being rock solid and stable. There are many things I like about Debian, especially its release cycle. But I still end up coming back to Ubuntu.

My most recent expedition was on my Eee PC 701. I tried the specialized version of Debian that’s supposed to be fully Eee-compatible (it comes with wireless drivers and hotkeys working, etc.). The only problem is I’ve never had good luck with madwifi drivers, even though that’s supposedly the “correct” way to go. In Debian, I ran into that same problem. Oddly enough, the minimalist installer was able to retrieve and install packages over my wireless connection, but when I had actually installed Debian, I couldn’t get wireless to work, even though the madwifi drivers were installed.

So I tried, as had worked in Ubuntu, to use ndisgtk instead, but I got some fatal error about the module not being loaded. Even though Debian’s Gnome was a lot snappier than Ubuntu’s (not sure why), I just went back to what’s tried and true (if not as responsive an interface). Back on Intrepid again.